Snowboard - Ryoko Hanashima: I devote this victory to my son

On 1st April world best deaf snowboarders were competing in halfpipe. Medal-winners have shared their emotions upon the end of the competitions.

Blair Esson (USA), 1st place: Of cause, I hoped to win. But I was not sure I will be able to get a gold medal. There are a lot of factors that can influence the performance: wind, snow and other things. But today the weather was good and we had a nice competition.

Sean Esson (USA), 2nd place: Me and my younger brother are very happy today. I am glad we managed to win medals here in Russia. We were training hard and that’s why we were able to achieve these results. I don’t feel sorry that my brother won gold again like in slopestyle a few days ago. We are one family! Today he is stronger and tomorrow I will be on top.

Ryoko Hanashima (Japan), 1st place: Four years ago I was very disappointed to know that Deaflympics 2011 in Slovakia were cancelled. Now I feel totally different. I am so happy! Halfpipe is very well done. Thanks for the organizers. Thanks to everybody! I am very happy to be first today. I want to devote this victory to my 2-year-old son. I miss him very much and look forward to see him soon.

Svetlana Anisimova (Russia), 3rd place: Halfpipe is a very hard discipline. I trained a lot and very intensively. I felt nervous before the start and was not sleeping well at night. As for my performance today, I tried to show high amplitude of jumping but it was not always a success. I am happy to get bronze! This is a good result for me at the moment because Japanese athletes that got gold and silver are very strong.